


Sweep me off my feet

by SonyB89



Category: The Great Wall (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Car Accidents, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Pedro Pascal Characters, Pero Tovar - Freeform, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Gestures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28780701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonyB89/pseuds/SonyB89
Summary: Modern! AU - Pero Tovar, an ex UN blue helmet soldgier, gets settled in his new apartment and meets the woman who lives next door. Two years later, they are thick as thieves, when a call from the hospital shocks him to his core.
Relationships: Pero Tovar x Original Female Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Sweep me off my feet

**Author's Note:**

> So a friend of mine had a car accident recently - she will be fine, thank the gods.  
> To cheer her up, I wrote Pero Tovar into a Modern! AU setting for her, in hopes that she will like it.

**Sweep me off my feet**

Pero Tovar, ex UN blue helmet soldier and overall grumpy Spaniard, had learned that a lot could change in the short time span of two years.

After his honourable discharge he had moved to his mothers hometown in Germany, to be closer to her and care for her as she battled Alzheimer’s in a special care facility.  
With his spanish father long gone and no real attachments to other people on the muddy ball called earth, it had been the only logical choice at the time.

He was expecting a quiet life, content in taking care of his mother, with a steady but boring job and an everyday existence that would bring him peace and quiet.  
But destiny had other plans.

Pero was a big man – he knew that.  
He was a tall and broad mass of muscles, strength and grumpy, intimidating eyes.  
It was no surprise that he managed his move on his own, stacking boxes upon boxes in the new hallway in front of his new apartment, as he could easily reach them. 

And he had a short fuse.

So when he heard a loud crash and a surprised scream from the hallway, he was ready to rip the idiot who had just toppled his boxes a new one – until he saw that the cartons with his belongings had buried a woman who was desperately avoiding to drop a pot.

Her torso, feet, legs and her head were buried under his things – but her arms were held high, pot in hand, shivering, trying not to spill it’s contents.

“ _Mierda_ ”, he cursed and slowly took the pot from the womans arms.  
“You okay there?”, he asked, his german still rusty and terribly accented as it had not been spoken by his lips and tongue and so long.

“ ‘m fine!”, a squeaky voice said as he lifted the clothes, towels, shoes and other bath stuff from the cartons off the woman.

A small creature revealed itself, a woman that for a second reminded him of a sparrow.  
She was a small, thin woman with hair the colour of chestnuts, at least two heads smaller than he was and at least half his weight.

He reached down to pull her up and as she weighed next to nothing, he swept her off her feet, softly knocking her into his muscular chest.

“I’m Valerie. And I suppose you’re my new neighbour? I brought soup.”

* * *

“That can’t be the only book you own, Pero”, Valerie said two months later, having become fast friends with her new neighbour, enjoying their first movie night of many.  
Pero had settled in and Valerie was still fascinated by how spartan his apartment was.

No knick-knacks, nothing out of place. He had a single bookshelf in the living room – a wooden plank nailed to the wall, with space for about ten books, and it only held one.

“It is, and it’s the only book I really care for”, he mumbled, taking a sip from his beer while hoping that the doorbell would soon ring with the pizza delivery.  
He was famished.

Valerie stood up, grabbed her keyes and said: “I’ll be right back.”

Ten minutes later, she entered the apartment again, with a stack of books in her hands. She nearly collapsed from the weight, but managed to gently put them down on the couch.

“What are you doing?”, he asked, with his best grumpy expression – that seemed to work on every human being but her.

“I have over three thousand books in my apartment, Pero. I’m a bookseller. The one book you have up there? It’s lonely.”

“My book? Is _lonely_?”

“Of course. Books only feel comfortable in the company of other books.”

“You’re weird”, he said.

“No, you’re weird, because you only have one book. Now, I am lending you a few of my books. Classics and must-reads, until I can drag you into the store with me and you can buy some yourself.”

“But-“

“No buts. Now help me.”

He had to admit that the shelf did look a bit better with more books on it.  
After stacking them, Valerie carefully picked up the lonely, well read book and cradled it in her hands.

“ _The Great Wall_ …”, she mumbled. “What’s it about?”

“It’s about two european medieval mercenaries who travel to China in search for what they call _> black powder<_. They end up at the Great Wall and fight monsters with the Nameless Order”, he explained, knowing the story by heart.

“Sounds… interesting?”, Valerie suggested and wondered why the book was so well read, dirty and obviously dried up after falling into the water.  
Pero took it from her and shelved it again, with a nostalgic smile on his face.

“I got it in a second hand bookstore overseas on my last deployment. It was the only book I took with me to the desert. Got me through some pretty heavy shit.”

Pizza arrived, movies were watched, and by the time Christmas came, Valerie had hunted down a rare first edition of the Great Wall bound in leather.  
And with each day, each kind gesture and each hug and smile, he fell a bit deeper in love with this tiny woman whose heart was so big that he wondered how her small body could contain it.

* * *

Two years, many movie nights, holidays, his mothers funeral and a meaningless relationship later, Pero pondered if he was brave enough to risk the one meaningful relationship he had, the best friend he had, for a chance at something more.

He thought about it the very moment his mobile rang with an unknown caller number and he still thought about it when he sat in the back of a taxi, cursing under his breath and throwing money at the cabby as he halted in front of the hospital.

This time, Valerie really did look like a crushed little bird.  
A bus had hit her car, a full frontal crash, effectively trapping her in her seat.

“ _Peroooooo_! You came! See, Stanley, I told you he’d come”, she grinned and shouted from her hospital bed, dressed in a white gown, that barely covered her thighs.  
There was a bandage around her head, but he hardly noticed it.

  
Both of her legs were covered in angry dark, blue, violet and green bruised.  
She was hooked up to an IV and apparently high as a kite on pain killers.

The nurse, Stanley, an elder fellow in faded scrubs, smiled.  
  
“You sure did.”

“And look, he has a nice butt _. I told you_!”

“Yes, you told me. Now, Valerie, I’m going to talk to him for a bit okay. And then, he’s all yours.”

“Okaaay. ‘m sleepy anyway.”

She was out like a light the second her eyes closed.

Stanley exited the room, Pero on his heels.

“How is she?”, he asked, the concern for once softening his grumpy demeanour.

“Considering that this could have been a lot worse?”, Stanley asked, “She’s doing pretty well. She was very lucky. Nothing is broken. Her breathing is still a bit shallow and once the swelling reduces a little she will be in quite some pain. But she will make a full recovery.”

Pero thanked the gods in spanish and rubbed his neck nervously.

“What can I do?”

“We’re keeping her overnight for observation”, Stanley explained.  
“After that, she’ll need a bit of help. She won’t be able to walk properly or without pain for a while. She’ll get a prescription for painkillers, but the only thing that will heal her is time and the ability of her body to heal itself. It’s gonna take a while, but as I said, the doctors say she’ll make a full recovery.”

* * *

The next day, Valerie had yet to take a single step at 8 pm.  
Pero had showed up when she was discharged, had picked her up in his arms and had carried her to the taxi, out of the taxi, up the stairs, into her bed, to the bathroom to pee, back to bed – her feet had yet to touch the ground.

And now he had drawn her a bath.  
She had managed to dress herself in a black tank top and black shorts. Those could get wet no problem and when she was on her bed she was able to dress herself.  
Pero picked her up without a word, despite her protest and lowered her into the warm, scented water.

“Call me when you’re done or if you need anything”, were the first words to come out of him all day.  
Valeries mind was still a bit hazy from the painkillers, but after knowing Pero for a bit more than two years, she realised that he was even more silent and _broodier_ than before.  
And she didn’t like it.

He came back twenty minutes later, plunged his arms into the water and picked her up without complaint or effort and clutched her dripping body to his chest.  
Laying her down on a huge bathtowel he had placed on the bed, he left her to get changed.  
  
When he returned this time, Valerie watched him as he unpacked a sleeping bag and placed it on the floor next to her bed.

“Pero, what are you doing?”

“Preparing to sleep on the floor.”

“Why?”

“So that you don’t have to shout in the middle of the night if you need anything. Besides, your couch is way too small for me”, he said.

“But-“

Pero interrupted her, probably harsher than he intended to.  
“We are _not_ arguing about this. I almost lost you yesterday, and I will _not_ let you out of my sight. I will stay here and take care of you until you are fully recovered. I will do the grocery shopping, I will do the cleaning, I will carry you wherever you need to go. And you will do nothing but focus on getting better, do you understand me?”

The shocked expression on Valeries face made him sigh , drop onto his haunches on the floor and bury his face in his hands, frustrated.

“For the last two years, you have been taking care of me. When my mother died, you refused to leave my side. Please just… let me do this for you, okay?”

In her urge to hug him, Valerie forgot that her legs didn’t work.  
She leaned forward, arms spread out and squeaked when she lost her balance.  
  
Just in time to catch her, Pero fell backwards, flat to the floor, with the frail woman in his arms, pressing into his chest.

“Wh-What the hell are you doing? Be careful, woman!”, he groaned.

“How else am I supposed to kiss you, when you’re sitting on the floor?”, she asked.

“I’m sorry _what_?!”

She giggled.

“I want to kiss you, dummy.”

“Why?”

“Because you just basically told me you love me back.”

Pero sat up in a haze, put his hands on Valeries hips and set her on the edge of her bed.

“You lost me…”, he mumbled, searching her eyes for an answer while simultaneously trying to ignore his rapid hard that was beating against his ribcage.

“Taking care of you, being there for you when your mother died? I did all that because I fell in love with you. And just now, you said you would take care of me. That’s what you do for the people you love.”

“B-But… What about-“, he stammered.

She smiled.

“Do you love me?”

“I… I do…”, he answered, surprised that the words left his mouth so effortlessly.

“Then get rid of the sleeping bag”, she ordered. “My bed is big enough for the both of us.”

It was embarrassing that one sentence could make him blush this hard and he was grateful that the room was dimly lit.

“And one more thing, Pero.”

“Yes, _hermosa_?”

“Kiss me already, before I change my mind.”

And that was an order she didn’t have to give him twice.


End file.
